Lily Allen has opened up about making her explosive new album West End Girl, saying she wrote it in 10 days after her life had “blown up”.
The British singer and actor, 40, made the record – her first in seven years – after the 2024 breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things star David Harbour, 50.
She has described the album, released on Friday (24 October), as “a mixture of fact and fiction which I hope serves as a reminder of how stoic yet also how frail we humans can be”.
The album covers many themes, including cheating, gaslighting, open relationships and sex addiction.
In a five-star review, The Independent’s Hannah Ewens wrote: “It’s not just confessional pop, it’s obliterative; an emotional post-mortem carried out in public, a death-by-a-million-cuts account of a thoroughly modern marriage breakdown.”
Now, speaking in a new interview with The Times Magazine, Allen said: “I was really depressed. I thought I didn’t have any good songs left. My writing had been really bad and it took something to happen in my life, for everything to be blown up, for me to be able to go, ‘Oh, here she is.’”
She added: “Traditionally in my life, when traumatic things happened, I’ve taken time to step away. I certainly don’t think I could have got up on stage days after losing a child [Allen suffered a stillbirth in 2010]. But that is probably more of an anatomical thing. And there are levels to the humiliation – right?”
The singer, who rose to fame aged 21 with irreverent Noughties hit singles “Smile” and “LDN”, admitted that her new album will ruffle feathers. “It will p*** off lots of people,” she said.
But she does not seem too worried about the reaction. “Time will tell,” she said. “I am a 40-year-old mother of two teenagers – it’s just not that big a deal.” Allen has two daughters, Ethel Mary Cooper and Marnie Rose Cooper, with her ex-husband, builder Sam Cooper. She would not be drawn on whether Harbour or her children have listened to West End Girl.
Of her decision to make the record, she said: “Nobody knew what was going on in my life. So I got into the studio, cried for two hours and then said, ‘Let’s make some music.’”
In the same interview, Allen talked about how, despite everything, she has enjoyed living in New York – where she moved to be with Harbour, who is American – because of the anonymity it gives her.
“When I walk into a room in this country [the UK],” she said, “I feel I am fighting against a tabloid version of myself – I want to prove I am not that person they read about.
“I don’t feel judged in America the way I do here. It is residual trauma from being followed around by 50 guys with long-lens cameras when I was 21, and then the words that came with the photos the next day.”
Allen married Harbour in 2019 after meeting on Raya, an exclusive dating app popular among celebrities and other high-profile figures.
She revealed earlier this month that she entered a treatment facility following their separation last year as she struggled with intense feelings of despair and almost relapsed after six years of sobriety.
The singer told British Vogue that she had “wanted to die” but “feels OK” now after finding a sponsor and going to daily meetings on top of medication, therapy and antidepressants.
Over the course of her Brit Award-winning and Grammy-nominated career, Allen has released five albums: Alright, Still (2006), It’s Not Me, It’s You (2009), Sheezus (2014), No Shame (2018) andWest End Girl (2025).
In recent years she has moved into acting, having performed in plays including 2:22: A Ghost Story, The Pillowman and Hedda.
